The dangers of parking

City’s party precinct, CBD hot spots for car theft

YOUNG criminals are stealing cars from the Gold Coast’s CBD and party precincts just to take them for joy rides before dumping them for owners to find them trashed or burned out, according to a leading criminologist.

A total of 1900 unlawful use of a motor vehicle offences were reported to Gold Coast police last year, almost 100 more cases than 2015-16, according to Queensland Police Service data.

“The main reason they take the cars is simply to take a joy ride,” Bond University criminologist Dr Wayne Petherick said. “(They) take it around for a couple of hours and dump it somewhere.

“The type of people who would generally do that are people in their late teens and early 20s.”

The QPS Crime Map reveals the worst areas for motorists to park their cars in the city includes Surfers Paradise, Southport and Labrador.

The heart of the city’s party precinct at Surfers Paradise was the area hit most often by car thieves.

There were 22 cars taken from nearby Surfers Paradise Blvd alone and 10 were taken from Ferny Ave.

In Surfers Paradise adjacent to Chevron Island it appears there were 66 offences reported, of which 29 are unsolved.

At Southport, the city’s CBD, the streets running off High St and Ferry Rd appear to be the worst locations for the offence with 16 cases reported near that stretch of road.

Overall, there were 40 offences reported in the area just south of Southport.

Another hot spot was Labrador with Frank St the standout with 29 offences, of which 16 were unsolved.

In the city’s north the Upper Coomera area had a cluster of 79 offences of which 47 remained unsolved.

At the southern end of the city reports were high around the Gold Coast Airport at Bilinga and Tugun with 62 cases in the areas just north and south of the facility, of which 24 cases remain unsolved.

Dr Petherick said the cars were also sometimes taken as a means to commit more crime.

“A little more infrequent is stealing them for the use of another crime,” he said.

He said it was rare to take a car for the purpose of selling it.

“To steal a car to rebadge and rebirth them is quite uncommon,” Dr Petherick said. “It takes a lot of organisation to do because it’s quite difficult to do with modern cars.”